The Kiss Of Death

Chapter 15

It took Lola several hours of searching through Irish records. Given that the folklore stated that it was an Irish tale, Lola thought it was wise to start there. When asked if Jacqueline ever had an accent, Frank shook his head.

"This only goes back to eighteen sixty-four. What are the odds that she was born at that time?"

"Anything is possible."

Frank put two more beers on the counter, not as cold as the last. The fridge was dead, and he hated that he had to get a new one now. Popping the lids, he put one in front of Lola and started to sink back his own. The less he had to remember about today, the better. Constantly talking about the witch was annoying, regardless of what Lola hoped for.

"Does she always wear that dress?"

"Not that one specifically but always like that. They're a little over the top, aren't they?"

"Yeah, but a modern version of the dresses from the nineteenth century. Look."

Lola turned the laptop around, showing Frank the pictures of women from that era. What Jacqueline wore was similar but toned down. It was almost like she couldn't let go of the time when she technically died but had to keep with the times.

Frank said she mentioned being poor, but that didn't mean that she wasn't exaggerating. Maybe the name Stingy Jack was because she liked to save her money for buying a nice dress.

"What made you pick that era?"

"Because according to the Internet, they started carving faces into gourds around the nineteenth century and would stick them on windowsills to ward off evil spirits."

Searching a genealogy site, Lola hit a wall and decided to try something a little more local. It wasn't long before Lola gasped. She looked up at Frank with pure amazement.

"Marriage records for a Jacqueline Ó Broin and Seamus McLantern. Doesn't seem right, does it?"

Frank moved around the counter, leaning in to look at the document.

"Says he was a lamplighter. Maybe he didn't have a surname and just adopted that name because he lit the street lights."

Lola hummed, not believing it but accepting it. Searching for more information about this mysterious woman, Lola soon found her birth certificate. French mother, Irish father, born in London. Lola kept going now that she'd found something solid.

"So, you've found her. Now what?"

"Now, we have to figure out where she met the Devil. The census after their marriage shows them living in East End, and interestingly, she had a kid to him. I guess he didn't die on the wedding night after all."

Lola had Frank intrigued, he looked closely at the document. She had a two month old son named for his father. When Lola clicked on the next census, there was no child recorded. With a little more investigation, Lola found out that the child died a few days before the census was taken. It made him ten years old.

They looked at each other, both knowing why Jacqueline picked Frank. It was entirely likely that he looked like her son.

"Maybe she kept you alive that night because she's probably always blamed herself for his death."

"And it would explain why she's hiding the truth about the situation if she's holding onto me."

"She sees her son in you."

Frank sighed heavily as he leaned back into the seat. He felt sorry for her if it were true. She was just a mother mourning the loss of her son, replacing him with another who was not the real thing but enough for a weary heart and mind. He felt a determination to free her trapped soul. Maybe if they could find a way out of this, he wouldn't need to die either.

"Okay, so we know why she might have been drinking her ass off one night and happened to find the one creature she shouldn't have. Maybe she struck a deal with the Devil."

Frank chuckled.

"Yeah, she'd do something like that. How do we find the Devil in London?"

"If he's still here."

"Something tells me that he'd never go too far away from his little trickster. I'd be pretty pissed off if I were this almighty biblical creature, and some human tricked me twice."

"Do you think she'd tell us?"

"Jacqueline? No, she wouldn't. Especially not if she's trying to keep a hold of me and definitely not if she's avoiding a one way path to Hell."

Sucking back the last of his beer, Frank watched as Lola searched for information about old trees.

"What would you say about a tree that is considered to be the oldest, and happens to be built on church grounds?"

"I'd say that the Devil could easily get stuck up it."

"It also happens to be reasonably close to Whitechapel. Question is, can we find the Devil, and if we do, can we convince him to let Jacqueline into Hell?"

Frank thought about what Lola had asked. It wasn't unreasonable to think that the Devil might reconsider, perhaps a little payback for tricking him. Was it right to send Jacqueline into his world rather than trying to get her into Heaven? He didn't have an answer.